SUNDAY TIMES REPORTS

Titans of Europe?
The Heineken Cup impasse could lead to lower-tier sides like Rotherham filling the breachStephen Jones and Nick Cain
The prospect of clubs such as Rotherham, Doncaster and Plymouth Albion representing England in the Heineken Cup next season, playing against giants such as Munster and the Ospreys, is moving nearer.

In a move guaranteed to widen the rift between the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Premier Rugby (PRL), the body that represents the Guinness Premiership clubs, Martyn Thomas, the chairman of the RFU, is pursuing the option to have National League One teams fill the void left by the withdrawal of the top clubs. A substantial war chest of more than £5m will be available to try to bring the first division teams, some of which are semi-professional, up to speed. England have six berths in next season’s competition.

While reiterating that his door is still open for talks with PRL, Thomas says the RFU will do everything in its power to ensure there is English representation in next season’s Heineken Cup. “If this situation is not resolved, the RFU owes it to the sport to keep this competition going,” he said. “We have spoken to our FDR [National League One] clubs, and if they want to compete we will support them. It will not have the same commercial value, but we hope the broadcast-ers [Sky TV] and the sponsors [Heineken] will stay with it.”

Thomas added that £5.5m of central revenue could become available to fund FDR clubs, plus extra revenue from the home pool games. This would be used to strengthen the squads, though there would still be the prospect of humiliation if even an augmented Division One team had to go to Munster, Leinster, the Ospreys or even Edinburgh.

The measure would almost certainly require the hiring of football stadiums. Of the top six clubs in National League One — Leeds Tykes, Rotherham Titans, Doncaster, Cornish Pirates, Plymouth Albion and Bedford, as the weekend began — only Leeds have a sizeable stadium, although their likely promotion to the Premiership would rule them out of the Thomas plan.

Geoff Cooke, the FDR chief executive, said that he suspected the FDR clubs would treat any RFU overtures favourably. “We have got some very ambitious clubs, and it is just a question of money, because they have the catchment populations,” he said.

Cooke’s response will cause fury among the PRL clubs, a clear majority of whom have agreed to uphold the concept of relegation and promotion, partly with an eye to fulfilling aspirations of FDR’s investors.

Ironically, an England entry from below the top echelon could involve amalgamated clubs or even quasi-regional teams, a concept hated by PRL clubs, distrusted historically by England rugby fans, broadcasters and sponsors, but never ruled out by the RFU. It might be that Plymouth, Exeter and Cornish Pirates could form some kind of southwest conglomerate (Exeter have a superb new stadium) and Nottingham, Coventry and Bedford a Midlands outfit. “We are in uncharted waters, but we’ve got to think about amalgamations, and about clubs who might want to strengthen their squads,” said Thomas.

The core of the European dispute is not, essentially, a European affair. The English clubs and RFU are still deadlocked not only over Europe but also on the question of elite player management and the setting up of a professional game board. PRL say that Twickenham finally acceded to the creation of the body, but then demanded a major RFU majority on it. The RFU say that a body with equal representation would not work properly.

We understand that PRL are incensed because they believe their case is being misrepresented inside Twickenham and are embarking on a nationwide tour to meet members of the 54-man RFU council. They have powerful support from Sir Hal Miller, chairman of the National Clubs Association (representing the third level downwards) and a council member. He said: “On the RFU council, often you never hear about issues until it is too late, and it is difficult to devise a means of holding the [RFU] management board to account on a consistent basis. The issues surrounding the Heineken Cup . . . have to be settled by negotiation, and they cannot be resolved in the media or by recourse to a court of law. I am quite sure that the conditions exist for reaching agreement, but it appears that personalities are part of the reason precluding this.”

The whole affair has revealed with brutal clarity the weaknesses of the domestic rugby systems of Ireland, Wales and Scotland. The professional teams in those countries cannot exist in their current form without a proper Heineken Cup and without a strong playing relationship with the English and French clubs. No wonder the game at large is so furious. Damian Hopley, chief executive of PRA, the professional players’ union, spoke for all his members on Friday and, certainly, for millions of other rugby followers as well. Hopley has offered to facilitate a meeting between the RFU and PRL to try to end the impasse.

He said: “You have to question whether, after one of the great Heineken Cup weekends, there is any good reason for this impasse. If you were part of a big organisation involved in a major negotiation, and after 16 months there was still no agreement, you would expect to be frogmarched out of the office.”

Guide to the row

Q: What is the dispute about?

A: Administrative control of the European Rugby Cup (ERC), also known as the Heineken Cup. The RFU has refused to hand over 50% of its shares and voting rights to the Guinness Premiership clubs. The French clubs withdrew from the competition citing the RFU’s decision, and the English clubs have now followed suit

Q: Why are the French and English clubs acting together?

A: Their collective bargaining power is enough to derail the European Cup, whereas alone it may not be. The French clubs say the 50% share given to them by their union counts for nothing if others do not have the same

Q: What happens next?

A: The ERC shareholders are due to meet on Wednesday morning with both the RFU and PRL in attendance; the RFU meanwhile is scheduled to meet the English lower-division clubs on Tuesday

This article was originally posted on 8-Apr-2007, 10:50 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 8-Apr-2007, 17:16.